Asus northbride heatsink came loose

[melmak]

Hello All

I have a problem with a friends Compaq computer. It has a Asus K85-LA motherboard and the heatsink over the SIS 760 North bridge chipset has come off and one of the catches on the motherboard that holds the spring arm down to make a tight connection has broken off.
1( Is there any way to attach the heat sink down with out using the arms? Like a combination of heatsink paste and glue or soothing?
2) Does any one know where I could get the part or a used same motherboard to take the post off of?

Thanks for all your help.

Melmak

 

[Cerb]

There are three possible repair options, that I know of.

You will need to clean the heatsink and the north bridge surface, regardless of repair type. I typically use 91% alcohol, with a Shop Towel or microfiber cloth. Get all the factory gunk off.

Then, you can use thermal epoxy. Arctic Silver's Arctic Alumina has been popular for quite a while, is fairly easy to apply. If it's not too expensive for you, it may be worth trying.

Another option would be to replace the post itself. This will also require some amount of thermal paste. If you can handle a soldering iron, or know someone who can use one well, the broken post can be replaced, by desoldering the old one, and putting in a new one. Apparently, those motherboard used some low-quality metal for those holders. I found that link just trying to see if the chip had enough surface area to use tape, using the keywords, "SiS 760," only, with a Google image search.

Or, you could use thermal adhesive tape, which is last because it's probably your best bet . This would not be ideal, but should be sufficient, will not require any special tools, and will be the least costly, if you can't just replace the post. I have no experience nor other affiliation with this seller, but if I were not proficient with a soldering iron, I would buy this, and cut it to size: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-pc-GENUIN...al-Adhesive-Heatsink-Tape-1-x-6-/271362837014
Alternative, with many more sales under their belt: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEKISUI-576...hermal_Compounds_Supplies&hash=item232ee0ba2f
You just cut it to size, peel one side, apply to either the heatsink or NB surface, smooth it out a bit, then peel the other side off, and put it all together. It's not as good of a thermal interface as thermal paste/grease, but it should be sufficient, since they didn't see the need to use flip-chip type packaging for the NB.

 

[melmak]

Hello Cerb
Thanks for your reply, I have one more question if you don't mind. Are you saying that the thermal tape is better then using the arctic alumina? I have not problem using the alumina as I an used to putting on artic silver and have built a few systems before. I just have not heard of the Arctic Silver's Arctic Alumina before and I don't know how good of a glue it would be. I want to leave the soldering on a new makeshift post as I have not done any soldering on a motherboard before and would rather try the others first.

Thanks
Melmak

 

[Cerb]

Hello Cerb
Thanks for your reply, I have one more question if you don't mind. Are you saying that the thermal tape is better then using the arctic alumina?

In performance? No.

In that it's <$10 for good quality thermal tape, a cheap lens cloth or roll of shop towels, and a small bottle of alcohol, v. $10 or more shipped for Arctic Alumina epoxy alone, and that it's still got all the mixing, setting time, and general mess-making properties of any two-part epoxy? Yes.

Also, the SIS760 did not tend to run too hot, like say, an nForce4, so I doubt performance is critical, as long as the thermal transfer is not terrible (some white-box motherboards used tape that was much worse than what I linked, rather than paste, and ran stable). IoW, if it didn't run right after trying the tape, damage from when the heatsink came off would be many times more likely than lack of TIM performance from the tape, so long as the surfaces were pretty well cleaned w/ alcohol (and make sure it's just alcohol and water, as some pharm stuff has other additives).

 

[melmak]

Hello again Cerb

Thanks again. I think I will go with the arctic alumina as I can pick it up here in Winnipeg at a local computer shop for $10.00 and if I order the tape through ebay it will take till early February to get here. I may also order the tape also as it may be good to have some in hand if I ever need it again.
I think the person that they bought this computer off as a refurbished one had the alumina on it already as when I got it and cleaned the chipset and the heatsink had something on it that was not like any of the silver I had ever seen ( it was a lot thicker) and red color and I could not find any piece of the hold down in the case.

Thanks again for all your help.

Melmak